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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Joba rules - and pitches another quick game - as the Yankees have great eight

I'm out of town this weekend - I'm in Washington, D.C. - so I missed seeing last night's game. I wasn't surprised that the Yankees won. But I was very pleasantly surprised to see that Joba Chamberlain not only won, but continued to pitch quickly - the game finished in less than three hourss.

I think those two items - pitching well and pitching at a fast pace - go hand in hand for Joba. As Derek Jeter, who was happy with Joba's pace, said to the media:

"I told him that after the game, he did a better job of working quick," Jeter said. "The last thing you want to do when you're out there on defense is play slow."

Ain't that the truth. It seems like there are many more errors when Joba moves slowly, than when he picks up the pace. Good to see that Joba is turning it around this year.

But what's going to happen when he reaches the Yankees' innings limit? Is he really going to go back into the bullpen? If so, Mike Francesa will be very pleased!

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In other news, I saw this headline, "Wang may meet with Andrews on Monday," and at first I wondered why the heck Chien-Ming Wang was going to talk with Erin Andrews! Was he going to express sympathy on those peephole pix or something? Then I realized it was James Andrews he was going to meet with. Yikes!

One of our readers emailed me to ask if my thoughts on the Yankees making any trade deadline deals. My guess is that they have to assume Wang is out for the year. So I wouldn't be surprised to see them trade for a fifth starter - they've already said they won't move Phil Hughes out of the bullpen anytime soon.

But will it be Roy Halladay? No chance. And that goes for the Red Sox, too. Why in the world is J.P. Ricciardi going to give his team's franchise player to somebody in their division? I just can't see it happening.

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Marc Carig of the Star-Ledger has done a great job in his first year as a Yankee beat writer. Check out his touching piece on the wonderful carnival the Bombers put on for the kids of Camp Sundown.